


Quest for Erebor

by tende90



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Gandalf Ships It, Happy Ending, Idiots in Love, M/M, MMORPGs, Middle Earth is an Online Game, Mutual Pining, Pining Thorin, Romance, scheming Gandalf
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-08
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-07-22 09:55:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7431244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tende90/pseuds/tende90
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if "Adventures of Middleearth" was a popular MMORPG and "Quest for Erebor" the newest expansion and Thorin's Company (and Bilbo of course) get to beta-test it?</p><p>Bilbo has never played an online game before and is quite frankly not interested in trying. But Gandalf has other plans. And what about that "devilishly handsome" Oakenshield-guy?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there :)
> 
> I got the idea for this story about half a year ago but never came down to writing it.  
> Still trying to cope with (deny) Botfa I thought "what if all that drama farewell-dying scene was actually just happening in a game and everyone knows it's not real but Thorin and Bilbo take it like really serious and totally overdo it".
> 
> English is not my first language, so please be patient with me (and tell me when I do sth wrong ;D)!  
> I hope you like it!

“No, Gandalf! No!”  
“Bilbo Baggins! You disappoint me! Who would have thought you became such a killjoy!”  
“I am no killjoy. I simply do not see what is so great about running around in a virtual world to kill some virtual monsters!”  
“A man needs hobbies, my dear Bilbo.”  
“Well, I do have hobbies! But they do NOT include sitting in front of a computer all day.”  
“No, they don't. But they DO include sitting in an armchair to read all day.”  
“I like my armchair! There's nothing wrong with that!”  
“And that is not what I'm saying. I just think you need a bit of change. Do something you've never done before, meet people, make friends.”  
“Yes. And you think an online game is the right place for that?”  
“Actually, yes, I do. There is someone, I think you should meet...”  
“What? Who? Couldn't you just-...i don't know, give me his number or something?!”  
“But of course not! Who would do that? Trust me, I do believe this is the best way for you to meet.”  
“...”  
“I won't force you to do it. Just consider my offer, I'll come back to you in a couple of days.  
“...”  
“Let me tell you, he's handsome!”  
“Gandalf, you-”  
“And devilishly so! _-click- toot toot_ ”  
“Oh, bugger...”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bilbo tries out Quest for Erebor for the first time and gets to know Thorin and the Company. First impressions are made ;)

Thorin couldn't wait to go online after this long day of work, so he shed off his coat, tossed his shoes aside and went straight to the living room to turn his laptop on. After that he turned for the kitchen to get a decent cup of coffee.  
His day at the office had been exhausting and outright annoying. Some jerk from the IT department got all the data mixed up and they spent all day trying – and failing – to sort it out again. He was tired. But even more so he was excited. He had been giddy all day, waiting to go home to drown in the world of AoM.  
Adventures of Middleearth was a Massive Multi Online Role Play Game – or something along the line, he could never get it right – that had experienced a massive boom with the last expansion „The Lord of the Rings“. People just loved the game and the many scenarios one could experience in it.  
An old friend of his father had introduced Thorin to the game about half a year ago, stating that he would need a distraction from all that work. Since he wasn't the most amiable person and seemed to scare everyone off who came closer than 3 meters, the game seemed to be an easy solution. At first Thorin had been reluctant. He never understood what people liked about sitting in front of a computer for all of their free time – never mind he didn't even understand why people needed free time at all – and he had to admit he had quite a few prejudices against 'gamers'. But after a bit of a bumpy start he got the hang of that whole playing thing and he had to admit he actually liked it. A lot.  
And today was the day! Said friend of his father, namely Gandalf, had somehow managed to get him into the Beta-testing of the new expansion „Quest for Erebor“. It was obviously required to be played by a group of at least 10 members even though there were parts that could be played alone just with aiding NPCs but that was the boring i-don't-have-any-friends-way of playing it and unbelievably so, Thorin actually had made some friends in the game. Even though he didn't know most of them in real life besides his best friend Dwalin, Dwalin's brother Balin and of course his nephews Fili and Kili (they had tried to get him into the game for ages).  
For creating a character in AoM one could chose between different races and different classes. Liking the sturdy built of the dwarves both he and Dwalin had chosen to play dwarven warriors. It was mostly an easy class to play and a good way to let go of some aggression.   
Over the months of playing TLotR they had managed to get together a group of thirteen dwarves of different classes plus that meddling old man Gandalf who naturally played a wizard of a ridiculously high level. Gandalf who seemed to know some higher instances at Tolkien Entertainment Group had managed to get all of them together into the Beta testing and they had been dying to start for over a week now. But something still was missing – or rather someone.  
The bad – or interesting – thing about QfE was that besides having to play it in a group you needed a Burglar. That was a new class that was introduced with QfE and it was perfectly fine besides one little problem. The only race that could play a Burglar were Hobbits. And Hobbits were really hard to find. Nobody really seemed to want to play them because they practically had no skills. Well, NO skills would be a bit harsh but they were definitely not for fighting. They could play healers or grocers. Mind you, hobbits were the ONLY race that could be grocers – and who needed grocers in an online RPG? – and were really good characters for learning second skills like first aid or cooking or all the other stuff that helped equipping your main character. But they were definitely not good for questing. So basically no one played them and it would have been impossible to find one if not for Gandalf. Nothing was impossible for the old man.  
And today was the day, they would meet their burglar and finally start on their Quest for Erebor!

Taking his coffee with him, Thorin snatched a sandwich from the fridge – a finished one from the supermarket – and went back to the living room where his laptop was finally set up now. He sat down on the couch and wiggled a bit to find a comfortable position with his notebook on his lap and started AoM. Almost immediately he got a group invitation from Dwalin who had obviously been waiting for him.

**Where have you been?** read the PM that popped up just a second later.

**Problems at work.**

**U come TS?**

Thorin sighed at Dwalin's loss of proper English grammar and spelling and plugged his headset in. He logged in to TeamSpeak and joined their usual channel. Most of The Company as they had called their guild were already online.

„So what's up? Ur hella late“ Dwalin said without greeting him.  
„Nothing new.“ he answered and sighed. He didn't really want to discuss that topic now. „That new assistant from IT, i told you about messed up the data. We're still trying to fix it. I'm here to forget about that so let's not talk about it.“  
Dwalin laughed and somewhere in the background he heard some coughing as if someone had choked on their own breath. Probably poor Ori who'd had a crush on Dwalin from day one. If only Dwalin wasn't too dull to see.  
„So you better get going!“ Dwalin said then. „I'm almost there and the others are not too far behind if i'm right!“ Collective agreeing noises were made. Meant was the meeting point with B...B...- their Burglar. Thorin was sure Gandalf had mentioned his name – or nickname? - but he couldn't quite remember it.  
„I'm on my way!“ Thorin said while he – his character – mounted his eagle and set off for THE SHIRE. THE SHIRE was the starting area for the hobbits and if they were to meet their Burglar there it meant probably that he was still of a low level and they needed to pull him to be able to start the higher quests.  
For a while, he watched as his character flew through the beautifully designed landscapes of Middlearth and sipped silently on his coffee while he listened to the friendly banter of The Company on TS. He only snapped back to attention when he heard his name on the headset, called probably not for the first time from the sound of it.  
“-rin! Thorin? Where are you? Were waiting!” Bofurs cheerful voice demanded with a hint of laughter. Focussing on the screen in front of him Thorin scowled. Not recognizing the area, he opened the map. 12 small coloured dots on the map showed him that he had already long since passed his friends and had to fly back. With a groan that made the others laugh – he needed to change the TS-settings to push-to-talk – he turned around and answered.  
“I'll be there in a minute.”  
“Nevermind, Thorin.” He heard Gandalf's voice for the first time this evening. “We'll just start without you. I've aready sent Bilbo an invitation to join our conversation.”  
Technically, the old man was right. There was no need to be at the same place to talk to each other via TS but yet it would be nicer. At least, since they were attempting to play mostly in-character.

Only a moment later a distinct sound declared BilboB had joined their channel.  
“Eh..hi...Nice to meet you..” a gentle voice said. He sounded a bit insecure but it made Thorin's heart race nevertheless.

 

\----

Bilbo was terribly nervous. It was only the third time that he logged into the game AoM and he had hardly any idea how the whole thing worked. In the end, it had been all Gandalf's fault. The old man couldn't stop talking – and bugging – about this interesting game he'd been playing with some fellow collegues and friends – especially this terribly handsome guy Thorin Oakenshield. Not his words, but Gandalf's! Yet he didn't know what made him agree to join. For all he knew Thorin could be fat, old and ugly and even if he wasn't he couldn't even see him. But here he was, waiting to meet The Company of Thorin as Gandalf had called them.   
He still wondered a bit how Gandalf managed to get him into the Beta-version of the new expansion – was it even called that? – since he had never played before, but as far as he knew nothing was impossible for the man.

Not knowing what to do with his time, hobbit-Bilbo walked around Hobbiton, the only place he'd already seen in the game. He had tried once to actually start playing but it didn't take ten minutes for him to die for the first time so he kept it at that first attempt.   
Actually, Bilbo was quite content with his role as a hobbit. What he'd read about the race seemed to be rather close to himself characterwise, so he'd decided to style his character as near to his real appearance as possible. That ended up with a round smiling face, honey coloured curls and hazel eyes. Just for the fun of it he had purchased a red waistcoat in the auction house to make the impression complete. And of course he had named his character Bilbo. The name was so unusal that it wasn't even taken and he came away without any special characters.

A message popped open on his screen. It was from Gandalf.

**We're at Bag End, meet us there.** and the login-data for a TS channel. Luckily Gandalf had already explained all of that to him a couple of days ago.

Taking a deep breath, Bilbo grabbed his headset and made sure it sat comfortably above his ears before he entered the TS and set of to Bag End.  
“Eh..hi...Nice to meet you..” he managed to stutter after a moment of silence.  
“You must be Bilbo!” A rather young voice answered excitedly and as his character arrived at Bag End he could see a dwarf with almost no beard and a wild black mane jumping. Right beside him stood a blond dwarf with braids in his moustache. Bilbo had seen this design when he had skipped through the possible characters and found he rather liked it.  
“I'm Fili.” another voice said, calmer but no less young and the blond dwarf bowed. “How did you do this?!” asked the first voice silently in the background and a moment later the darkhaired beardless dwarf was bowing too. “I'm Kili!”  
“At your service” they said in unison and Bilbo wondered briefly how long they had trained for that. Bilbo chuckeld and answered “Bilbo. At yours.”  
After that all hell broke lose while 10 people tried to introduce themselves to him all at the same time.  
He found out that the dwarf with the ridicoulous hat was Bofur and that the voice that belonged to him was rather charming and sounded like he was always smiling.  
Oin seemed to be a bit hard of hearing and Gloin, his brother talked more about his son than about the game.  
After it came to Dori, Nori and Ori – who seemed quite likeable really – Bifur, Bombur, Balin and Dwalin, Bilbo was really glad that he could activate the names above the characters. He found it quite easy to remember name and voice but to add the game characters to both proved itself to be difficult.   
And still, one dwarf was missing. In the group listing, as well as in the TS channel, he could see that Thorin Oakenshield was very much present but he didn't say a word. Until suddenly Gandalf's tall figure turned away from the company and he heard the old voice say: “There he is!”  
The deepest, roughest, sexiest voice Bilbo had ever heard in his entire life answered.   
“Yes, here I am. I got a bit lost there.”   
The dwarf turned towards Bilbo and he could feel his heart beat faster even though he knew it was just a character and Thorin couldn't really see him. Yet Thorin's character stilled while Dwalin teased him about always getting lost whether in reallife or online. Thorin ignored him, instead he rumbled: “So this is the Burglar? Looks really more like a grocer to me...”   
And Bilbo felt his cheeks warm with embarassement at the silly waistcoat and anger settled in his gut at Thorin's sheer impoliteness. A message from Gandalf showed up on his screen.

**Don't worry. He inspected ur gear it's a tad bit insufficent. We'll get to that asap. Will b fine!**

Bilbo didn't care.  
“Excuse me!” He said, voice pitched a bit higher and stiff with anger. “I believe it is you who is in need of me. Not the other way round. Thank you and goodbye.”   
And with that he logged out.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one in which Bilbo is furious (and kind of badass), Thorin's voice is definetely too sexy and Thorin gets a visit.  
> No one gets enough sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there :)  
> I'm so glad you liked the story so far! I'll try to upload regularly once a week and I want to set a fix day for that. As I'm currently on vacation that will probably happen after chapter 3.  
> So, here comes chapter 2, hope you like it :D
> 
> Hope I didn't forget any html-stuff for the dialogues (I'm not sure how i formated the last chapter atm) but I'll correct that as soon as I'm home! I just didn't want to leave you hanging for too long :)

“Well done, Master Oakenshield!” Gandalf's voice thundered through his headset. “You just scared off our burglar. How easy do you think it is to find one?!”  
“I said nothing but the truth.” Thorin answered a bit defensive. He did not want to feel like he'd done something wrong even though he didn't feel especially good after Bilbo just left. He had expected more of a fight or something. But logically, Bilbo could probably join whatever group he wanted. He had no need of them. He was achingly right.  
“Seems like that's it for today... I'm off!” Nori said.  
“Yep, me too.”  
“Bye!”  
“See you tomorrow!”  
It took only a few minutes and the channel was wiped, safe for Thorin himself and Gandalf. The others either logged out to do something more useful with their time or they were off to go on with their daily quests.  
It was silent for a moment and Thorin felt himself starting to brood before Gandalf spoke again.  
“Don't worry. He'll come around!” and with that he left and Thorin was on his own.  
Well, that was exactly the reason why he didn't like to engage in human relations. He just managed to scare everyone off, whether in reallife or in a game. He hadn't even meant it that way, really. He had just been so...stunned. Gandalf might have talked a bit about that person who was supposed to be their Burglar but nothing Gandalf could have said would have prepared him for the blow that hit him when he heard Bilbo's voice. At a loss of what to do, he had inspected the online-character rather than imagining that voice doing other things than talking and then his stupid mouth simply had said the first thing that came to his mind. Without filter. Really, well done!

\---

Bilbo was fuming. He was SO SO furious. Just who did that..that jerk think he was? He did not have to put up with this! Maybe the members of the Company had seemed rather likeable in the beginning but this Thorin-guy was just unacceptable.  
Angry at Gandalf for bringing him into the game, at Thorin for being such an idiot and at himself for letting this get to him so much, he stood and went to the kitchen to start cooking something. Admittedly, he had already eaten dinner but cooking always took his mind off things and he just loved it.  
Not even a quarter of an hour later his mood was noticeably better and he was humming to himself while turning pancakes with graceless but rather artistic movements.  
Who cared about Thorin Oakenshield anyway? And what kind of name was that supposed to be? Was it real? Or was it a nickname? He couldn't tell. He himself had a pretty unusual name, so who knew if the others were in the same position? Not his business anyway. And who cared about online games? There were so many nicer things to spend your time with. In a couple of minutes, he would lounge in his armchair with a plate full of pancakes and one of his favourite books and really, what could compete with that?  
“...more like a grocer...” an unfortunately still sexy voice echoed in his head and he groaned. Why couldn't his mind just leave it alone? He was a Baggins and spent most of his time in the bookstore, he inherited from his parents and led a respectable life and he really had NO NEED for proving his worth in an online game. At least, that was what he tried to tell himself. But he was not only a Baggins, he was also a Took and furthermore his mother's son. And the tookish part of him craved the competition. It just wanted to shove it in that arrogant bastard's face how much of a grocer he was! He would be in for a surprise! Thorin wanted a mountain? Bilbo would get him one, oh yes, he would! He would make the guy king under his fucking mountain just to show him his place! Yes, that was a good plan, that he would do. Just..how?  
“Well, some research seems to be required!” he decided for himself, much more at ease now, and took his pancakes back to his study desk. “Let's find out what theses hobbits can do. Can't be they're really good for nothing.”

Many hours, several cups of tea and the whole plate of pancakes later, Bilbo felt a lot wiser than before.  
Hobbits weren't that bad of a race. They could play four classes: Hunters, Priests, Grocers and Burglars. The first of the two were as fit for fighting as any other race playing the same class would be, too. Hunters were fit for ranged physical damage and they could use a pet and traps as support. Priests in comparison could be skilled as ranged magic damage dealers, healers or supporters. They were able to hold powerful shields and could control another character for a distinct amount of time. Grocers...well, Bilbo had to admit, that even he was not sure what that class should be good for but google knows it all! So, first Bilbo found out that 'grocer' obviously was not meant as 'guy who dealt with food' but as 'guy who sells everything'. The class was not designed for fighting but it seemed practical for every active player to have one grocer in his character list because they could hold ridiculously many items and – unlike any other class – they were not limited to two 'second skills' but they could learn all of them. Put together that meant, that grocers were able to make lots of gold by making and selling items and they were super helpful in equipping your own characters. At that moment – about 3 am – Bilbo decided he would NOT feel offended by being called a grocer. It could be a rather nice compliment. Even though he knew Thorin hadn't meant it like that. He had decided not to think about him and up to now he had mostly succeeded. So, he would just continue to succeed. No Thorin needed here!  
Back to the topic, Bilbo tried to find more information about Burglars which showed to be rather difficult since they were only introduced with Quest for Erebor which was still in it's Beta-testing. In short: practically nobody played a burglar and nobody wrote anything about them on the internet. The only thing he found out was that they were good at sneaking and could fight in melee as well as use some supporting spells. And obviously, there was at least one needed in a party to defeat the last boss of QfE. That was not much to go by, but at least Bilbo didn't feel so useless anymore.  
Eager to test some of his new knowledge, he logged in to AoM again and started to equip his character as he'd seen it in several how-to-youtube-videos. Then he stuffed his bags with healing potions and went to retry his current Quest.  
He failed. Miserably. More than once. But nobody needed to know.

Come morning, he had managed to level his character up to Lvl 10. Now, he could finally leave Hobbiton. Satisfied, he left the game and after a short glance at the clock above the door, he made himself acceptable and went downstairs to open his bookstore.  
His regular customers seemed a bit irritated by the large bags under his eyes but considering the small smile that never left his face, they said nothing and Bilbo was thankful for it. He did not intend to explain to them what had kept him up all night.

\----

Thorin was tired. He had not slept well that night after he had decided to call it a day, only a short time after the grocer-desaster as he called it for himself.  
He was grumpy and moody all day, got scolded by Dis and mocked by Dwalin. And all throughout this terribly boring, annoying and all in all totally unnecessary day, he could not help but wonder what the face to that voice, that had put him in his place quite briefly, might look like. Yesterday he had felt too bad to actually stalk the guys profile and like hell would he ask Gandalf about it. So he just kept swooning over it a little for himself. A part of him, he had to admit, didn't even want to see what the guy looked like. Not that they would meet in real life anyway but it was nicer to keep the delusion. Just in case. Even though Bilbo had not seemed to be the cliché gamer.  
His thoughts kept moving in circles for the rest of the day and when he finally left the company, he felt more exhausted than he had in years. And all of that about a person he would probably never talk to again in his whole life...  
The way home took him only about 15 minutes because he was rather late and the evening-rush hour was already over. He parked his car on the street in front of the small house, he moved in two and a half years ago. It was in a nice street with many small houses and double-houses. Quite a few families lived there but he rather liked the ruckus instead of utter silence after 6 pm that he had felt in the appartment in which he had lived before.

He hopped up the three stairs to his front door and put the key in the hole, surprised when the door immediately popped open. He heard laughter from the living room and took sight of two pairs of carelessly discarded shoes that lay in the entrance area as well as two rainsoaked jackets that were thrown over the heater sloppily.  
He sighed and pulled the door closed behind himself.  
“Uncle!”   
“Thorin!” He was welcomed by his nephews whose heads appeared in the living room door while he put away his jacket and got rid of his shoes.   
“How was work?” “We made you coffee!” “We ordered Pizza, should be here in ten. Kili tried to cook but he burned it black!” “That was your fault?” “How that?!”  
Thorin inhaled deeply and slowly turned to face his nephews. “Good evening to you, too.” He said passing them on his way into the living room. As promised, a big mug of coffee was placed on the couch table right beside his laptop that he had left there the evening before.  
“Lots of milk, no sugar!” Kili supplied helpfully and Thorin had to grin a bit when he sat down. “Thank you.” he said and took the mug, tentatively tasting a sip. “So, to what do I owe the pleasure?”  
Kili sat down opposite of him on the floor, while Fili took seat on the sofa arm on his right side. Both looked sheepishly at each other and tried to avoid his glance. It developed into some kind of duell in which Kili and Fili fought about who had to tell their uncle for whatever reason they were here. Thorin just layed back and sipped his coffee until finally Fili spoke first.  
“We thought maybe we could...spent the night?”  
Thorin only so much as cocked an eyebrow at his older nephew. “You have school tomorrow.”  
Kili let out an exaggerated sigh and let himself fall back on the carpet.  
“Yeaah, we know. And we will go, we promise!” Fili assured him. “It's just...Mum...she's going on and on about how we shouldn't play stupid online games and how we should play them even less in the week. But now we've got a burglar and we can finally start playing – I mean really playing – and we just really don't want to wait till the weekend.”

Thorin thought on that for a moment and let his gaze wander from Fili to Kili who still lay on the floor pouting. For Fili it would be alright to stay up late. He would turn 19 this year and was in his last year of school with his exams still nowhere in sight. So, why not? But Kili was only 15 and didn't fare too well in school. Considering his notes, Thorin really should be the responsible adult he was supposed to be and send the boy back home to his studys. But what on earth was being an uncle good for if not for being a bad influence and spoiling children rotten that are not yours anyway. So, Thorin nodded. “Fine, IF the burglar will be there.”  
Kili cheered and Fili laughed.  
“Well, I wouldn't hold it against him if he never wanted to talk to you again, uncle!” Thorin smiled at that. Calling him uncle was Fili's way of saying thank you. When he turned 16 almost three years ago, he had decided he was too old to keep calling Thorin uncle and went with “Thorin” most of the time now. Thorin never mentioned that he liked being called “uncle” but maybe he was just too obvious.  
He drank the last sip of his coffee and stood. “I'll have to call your mother.” Just in that moment, the doorbell rang and Kili dashed to the front door to freak out the poor Pizza boy.

About half an hour later, the pizza was finished and all three of them had set up their laptops. Thorin still had his place on the couch, while Kili spread out on the floor again and Fili occupied Thorin's study desk.  
“Waah! I'm so excited!” Kili giggled. Fili rolled his eyes but cheered himself as a PLING announced that a friend went online.  
“He's here!” Fili cheered and both Kili and Thorin looked at him bewildered.  
“Who is?”  
“Well, Bilbo, of course!”  
“Why is he in your friend list?”  
“Why not? I sent him an inv yesterday before I logged out.” Thorin stared at his older nephew disbelieving. Again, he wondered, how social interaction seemed to be so easy for other people. But before he could drift off, Fili chatted on. “I'm gonna write him! Hello, Master Burglar!”  
Thorin flinched, he was not sure if that was exactly what Bilbo wanted to hear.  
“I wanna, too! I'll send him an inv, as well!” Kili announced and everything in Thorin screamed “YES! Ask him to be your friend! NOW!” but his body refused to move and so he decided to finally stalk Bilbo's profile instead.  
The result was sobering. Obviously Bilbo was not the type to reveal much of himself online. But at least, Bilbo seemed to be his real name. Unfortunately, the guy had filled no other information in besides his age – 32, closer to himself than he would have thought – and he seemed to like books. Thorin read that from his profile pic which showed – much to Thorin's disappointment – a stack of books on an old study desk with an antique table lamp. So, it gave no more away than that the guy really seemed to like books. Or old study desks. Or maybe both.  
And one other thing Bilbo's profile told him. He had reached level 12 and had left Bree behind.  
He heard the Company chatting away happily but didn't really listen to the words being sad. But what he heard was Bilbo's humble voice beind embarassed about so much praise.  
“Wow, Mister Bilbo!” Kili exclaimed, not knowing Bilbo's last name. “When did you get so far?! Only a few level and u can learn riding!”  
“Haha...” Bilbo laughed rather unamused. “Yeah...it seems so...” Thorin grinned a bit to himself. That Bilbo-fellow didn't seem too sure of himself even though he made a massive jump from yesterday to today. Actually, there was only two solutions: either Bilbo did not have a job and just had all day to play or which was actually more likely, he did have a job and didn't get any sleep last night just to show them their place. Thorin had to admit, he liked the fighting spirit.  
“Let's get on with it!” he heard Nori's voice via headset. “We'll pull u a bit and in no time we'll be off to Erebor!”  
Bilbo coughed akwardlybut agreed. “That would be most likeable, thank you very much.”  
There were many goodwilled chuckles on the TS until Bofur adressed Thorin. “Lead the way, Thorin!”  
Thorin sighed a tad bit frustrated, but only his nephews could hear, since he had wisely set TS on push-to-talk after the desaster from yesterday. Without so much as a word, he invited all of them into a group and let them into the wild. He ignored Fili's knowing sideglance and just concentrated on the game and not to say anything. At least not for today.


	4. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one where Bilbo has a real life and Tauriel enters!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sooo sorry, that it took so long!  
> I had half of this written out and then i was lacking time and motivation...but i'm not giving up on this!
> 
> Thank you so much for the comments and the kudos :D i'm happy, you like it so far!

Gandalf joined them later that evening. It went all relatively quiet and peaceful except for the felt hundred times that Mister BilboB died on them, but at least he seemed to do his best. Even though it was not much. And he managed to level up another 5 level before midnight – which was mostly because they were all in the same group and he was the only one getting EXP from them killing mobs because their levels were much too high for the resident monsters.  
At exactly 23:55 Thorin wrapped it all up.  
**Done for today.** He wrote into the channel.  
After all he had two school-aged boys to get to bed if he did not desire the wrath of his sister and by the heavens – he did not!  
And to be fair, the only thing that had been heard of Bilbo for the last hour has been a lot of yawning and „I'm not tired“s like he was a little boy.  
„See you again tomorrow, 8 pm.“ Thorin said while he pressed the talk button on his keyboard and was already logging out of AoM.  
„Noooo...“ Kili whined. „Why now? We had a run!“ He complained and even Fili looked like he was to say somthing but was interrupted by the company giving their goodnights.  
„See ya tmorrow!“ Bofur smiled into his headset and off he was.  
„G'night. See ya at work!“ Dwalin added and like that in two minutes they were all gone.  
„Geez...old men...“ Kili complained but shut his laptop down nevertheless.  
„There's always tomorrow.“ Thorin offered, knowing that for a 15-year-old who was bored to hell by school this was little consolation.  
He almost closed down TS when he heard the warm and soft voice of Mister BilboB through his headphones. „ehm...Goodnight...?“  
He couldn't help but smile a little – hoping his nephews wouldn't see it as they were busy packing their notebooks away – and pushed the talk button again. „Good night, Master Burglar.“  
Then he shut his laptop down as well.  
That – he thought – went not too bad.

___

Before Bilbo knew what had happened it was suddenly almost midnight. He had been so tired, it was hard to hold his eyes open for at least the last hour and suddenly before he understood what was happening everyone said their goodnights and was off and about. He was definitely too slow for this whole online thing. Nevertheless, he offered an unsure „Goodnight...?“ Just in case anyone was still there. He knew there was an online list somewhere but he just couldn't find it now and it would take too long to search it anyway. Not expecting an answer, he searched for the logout-button when the rough and dark voice, he admittedly had longed to hear all evening, answered. „Good night, Master Burglar.“  
A message popped open, telling him, he was the last person in the chatroom and he was left with his heart racing.  
„Goodness...what's wrong with me?!“ He murmured to himself when he went to the bathroom while waiting for his computer to close down. „It's not like I have a crush or anything!“ He said to his reflection in the mirror, more to convince himself than anything else. „At least, he didn't insult me today... One step at a time...“

It didn't take him longer than 15 minutes until he was in bed and sound asleep, a mysterious dark voice rumbling like distant thunder through his dreams. If it wasn't for almost 2 days and a night without sleep he probably wouldn't have been able to find any sleep at all. But thank goodness he (obviously) was anything but a responsible adult who knew how to keep his life in check, so sleep was fast to come.  
The next morning came fast – too fast. But it was Friday which was good because Friday meant the next day would be Saturday and the day after that would be Sunday and Sunday was his day off. Because the bookshop was closed that day and half-a-year ago he'd finally managed to hire someone for his finances. So, no more sundays spent despairing over bills and taxes.

Groggily, he made some breakfast and got ready for the day, managing to open the bookstore just in time. It was a quiet morning – as usual on Fridays, but he sold quite a few books. By ten the deliverer arrived bringing the ordered books from yesterday.  
At 2 pm sharp the door dinged and Tauriel came in. She was 18 years old, a beautiful redhead, tall with slim features. She had been helping out since a year, on weekdays after school and sometimes on the weekends to save some money for...he wasn't even sure what for exactly.

„Wow, Bilbo!“ she exclaimed as soon as she spotted him behind a bookshelf.  
Just as he was about to ask what was wrong, she added. „You look like shit.“  
He stared at her silently for a moment, then turned back to the shelf to continue sorting the books in. „Well, thank you, Tauriel. How nice of you to make me aware.“  
She laughed, her beautiful, carefree laugh. „Sorryyy...“ Then an earnest look crossed her face. „Is everything alright though?“  
He smiled at her, because he knew she was actually concerned. „Yes, everything is alright. I just haven't slept that much the last few days.“  
Tauriel started grinning like a cheshire cat. „Why might that be? Did good ol' Bilbo get him a bae?“  
Bilbo burst out laughing at Tauriel's poor attempt to copy a teenage slang. „Hahaha, no! Well, unfortunately not. Quite the opposite rather...“ He made a short pause, partly for the dramatic effect, partly out of embarassement. „I've started playing this game everyone's been going crazy about lately.“ (Sorry guys, not Pokemon GO XD)  
„My, Bilbo...“ Tauriel stared at him for a moment. „You don't mean Adventures of Middleearth now, do you?“  
„Well, yes actually.“  
„Whaaat?“ Tauriel interrupted him. „Why? I mean, why now? I thought, you're not interested- Ah! It was Gandalf, am I right? What did he do to coax you in?“  
Bilbo felt his cheeks warming and coughed slightly to hide his embarassement as an especially deep, sexy voice came back to his mind. Mercifully, Tauriel didn't seem to notice his glowing cheeks as she rambled on. „How do you like it? How far have you gotten already? Let's play together some time!“  
Bilbo smiled at her obvious excitement and banned all improper thoughts off his mind for the moment.  
„I don't think, i'm really getting the hang on this. I'm more or less just running behind everyone else. We've been on this Erebor-thing-“  
A screeching sound cut him short and he looked at Tauriel dumbfounded who cupped her mouth with both hands to avoid further embarassement. She usually didn't consider herself one of those squeaky girls that screamed at everything, but this was it. Her boss, good old Bilbo who never touched a computer if he could avoid it, didn't only start playing an online game – no he even managed to get into the super exclusive beta-testing.  
„You're in the beta?! How did you manage that?!“  
„Well, Gandalf-“  
„Oh, that sucker!“ Tauriel cursed. Of course it was Gandalf! She knew the old man only a bit because he often came in to order some rare books no one had even seen in like a hundred years or so. „Why didn't he ask me if i wanted, too? Wouldn't that even have been the logical thing to do? I mean, I've been playing that game for months already!“  
„Don't pout, my dear. We can ask him if he can still get you in.“ Bilbo said, suddenly feeling bad for getting this opportunity that he obviously couldn't apprecciate appropriately.  
„Nah, it's okay.“ Tauriel waved it off. „I'll ask Legolas if his Dad can do something about it. Let's get to work, shall we?“ She stated and took a stack of books and started sorting them onto the upper shelves – she was like 20 cm taller than Bilbo, so that was a thing they'd established without talking about it. Tauriel would sort in everything above Bilbo's reach, while he would do the lower shelves.

\---

By the time evening rolled around and they closed up the shop, it was raining heavily – pouring rather.  
Bilbo watched Tauriel standing in the doorway indecisively eyeing the rain outside as he called her over.  
„Tauriel!“ She turned around, hope in her eyes. „Come up for a cup of tea until the rain stops.“  
„You're a saver, Bilbo!“ She exclaimed happily, already following him to the backdoor leading to the staircase. Bilbo just laughed as he went up the stairs to unlock the door to his flat.  
„You'd probably drown on the way to the busstop.“  
„That's....sadly true...“ She grinned as she entered the appartement before him, slipping out of her shoes and leaving them next to the door, together with her bag.  
Bilbo followed her and went straight for the kittchen to boil some water. „Just make yourself at home!“ he called to her, but she had already settled on his couch with his favorite pillow snuggled in her arms.  
A moment later, he joined her with two cups of his favourite chamomille tea. Tauriel hated chamomille tea but Bilbo's was the best and she took it gratefully.  
They talked for a while as the rain seemed to have no intention to stop anytimme soon, but Bilbo kept throwing nervous glances at his watch. He did not want to be late, he had a reputation to hold – well, build – after all.  
„Listen“, he started at precisely 5 to 8 pm. „I kind of have to...“ he sputtered a bit making omnious gestures towards his study – a part of him was actually embarassed to have an appointment in an online game – but Tauriel only laughed at him.  
„I see. You just do your thing, i'm gonna watch.“  
Bilbo eyed her warily but didn't say anything as he resigned himself to his fate. It was still raining cats and dogs and he didn't have the heart to throw her out. 

Tauriel followed him to his study and took seat in his favourite armchair, legs thrown over the armrest and a new cup of tea in her hands. She had a good view on his monitor from here.  
„You're gonna laugh your ass off...“ Bilbo mumbled while turning on the PC.  
„Nah...yes, you're right.“ she grinned. „I'm gonna laugh my ass off. Keep going, ignore me.“ She urged him on.  
Bilbo did his best at doing exactly that and logged in to the game, as well as TS.  
Some of the group were already there: Bofur, Fili, Kili, Gloin and the Ris as he'd taken to calling them. One online message after the other popped up, telling him the group was coming together, besides Gandalf. The old man was as always fancy late.  
Tauriel got a glimpse of Bilbo's online list while he was anxiously waiting for a special name to show up. Her silent snicker made him look up. „What? I haven't even started embarassing myself yet!“  
He turned around to look at her with an irritated expression.  
„Nah, it's not that. It's just that i know someone whose name is Fili. He's from my class.“  
Bilbo felt his heart starting to race because „Thorin“ and his nephews might be closer than he would have ever thought. Practically they didn't even have to be from the same country, though the timezone voted for that at least.  
„Actually...“ Tauriel paused, watching Bilbo intently as she started grinning for earnest. „I think, he has a brother named Kili...“ A light blush spread on her cheeks at that.  
Bilbo just stared at her. He didn't know what to process first, that Tauriel was actually blushing at the mention of a guy – he had never ever seen it before, she rather seemed to believe all guys to be idiots – or that this really couldn't be a coincidence anymore.  
He voiced neither of his thoughts.  
Tauriel did.  
„That can't be a coincidence!“

\---

When he was finally able to concentrate on the game, it was raining. He had to admit, he was a bit amazed by this as it was the same weather as outside. Tauriel only laughed about his excitement and settled with silently watching him.  
She had to admit, he was bad. Like really terribly bad. But he did his best.  
By the time she had to leave because she really needed to get that last bus home Bilbo had learned to ride a pony. That was still slow but at least a bit faster than walking. The money he had already collected during the first quests had only been enough for the riding-teacher though, so Thorin lent him the money for the horse. Bilbo still felt a bit lightheaded about that when he led Tauriel to the door and sent her off with an umbrella and a thermal mug with chamomille tea - even though the brooding man had made it quite clear that he wanted the money back as soon as Bilbo had gained enough.  
The evening went by fast with Gandalf leading them somewhere to a quest-point only he could see because it was obviously a wizard-only-thing. Or at least, that's what Bilbo understood. He felt like the further the evening went, the less he understood. It was tiring, but at least he was pretty sure that the others didn't know where exactly they were going either as he heard them complaining on TS. Especially Bofur was rather vocal about it.  
„The crazy wizard is leading us into nowhere..“ That was when Gandalf decided that... he needed a break?!

**brb** was all that Gandalf left in the chat, without so much as saying a word on TS as he went afk to do...whatever old men did at 9:45 pm when they didn't go to bed. Bilbo didn't really want to know.  
„What?“  
„Where are we?“  
„Hey?!“  
„Gandalf?“  
„You can't leave now!“ came the complaints in TS, but Gandalf ignored them.

They seemingly stood in the middle of nowhere, only a burned farm or something of the like at the side of the path they'd been following.

A new window popped up on his screen inviting him to a private TS-room. He clicked join without thinking and was greeted by Kili's excited voice.  
„Master Burglar! Come on, join us, save the ponies!“  
„What-“ Bilbo started at the same time as Fili's voice interrupted his brother. „Chill, Kili!“ Then he adressed Bilbo. „Look, Bilbo, it's okay if i say Bilbo, is it? There's this mini-quest we've been trying to do-“ „Save the ponies!“ „Shut up, Kili!“  
Bilbo blinked a few times confusedly as Fili continued. „We've been trying to do this, buuut we have to be a party of at least three, including a burglar. I'll send you an invite. Are you in?“

 _Fíli invited you to „Save the ponies!“_  
_Accept_  
_Decline_

„Well...what harm can it be...“ Bilbo murmured to himself, forgetting about the boys on TS.  
„It will be fun!“ Kili laughed as Bilbo clicked _Accept_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, next up: Trolls! :D


	5. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trolls!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally the new chapter!!  
> I'm not completely satisfied with it but it's finally finished and after reworking it a dozen times I'll just post it now!  
> I'm sorry it took so long! (I hope there are no continuity problems..)
> 
> I had to change a bit to make the scenes from the movie fit into my setting of a game and this will have to happen quite a few times in the future yet but I hop you'll enjoy it anyway :D

They failed. Sepctacularly.

After accepting the STUPID quest with the boys, Bilbo had put his cooking utensils to the side – as he had been attempting to train the one skill that was familiar from real life, cooking – and followed the boy's characters into the woods. There was a blinking spot on the mini map in the right upper part of his screen, obviously where the ponies were supposed to be.  
In hindsight, Bilbo should have read the quest-description before accepting. Of course he hadn't.  
He crouched down next to the dwarves and tried to spot the ponies, when the earth started shaking – transported to him through a shaking image on his screeen and a droning sound through his speakers. The next thing he saw was the giant foot of a troll stomping down in front of them.  
„WOAH!“ He heard Kili's excited voice in his ear. „Troolls...You go first Bilbo!“  
„What? Why me?!“ He surely would be dead as soon as the trolls spotted him.  
„Because you're the burglar!“ The teenager exclaimed, as if it explained everything.  
„Soo...?“ Bilbo started, trying to indicate he was not yet in on the joke.  
„You can sneak up on them, free the ponies and off we go!“  
„I don't think it will be that easy...“ Bilbo muttered, but still the boys had a point. That was probably why a burglar was needed for this in the first place.  
Good grieve, had he only read that damn description. He knew by now that he could still do that, but he had not yet figured out which key to press for this. All those icons looked the same to him anyway. Not that he'd care to admit.  
„Okay...“ he said to himself, hovered the cursor over the icons in his action bar and clicked the one that said `Sneaking – will let you move unnoticed at 60% speed, ends when attacked or when attacking´. His character became kind of see-through and stayed in a crouched position as he moved forwards, trying to make a reasonably big circle around the three – mind you, THREE! – trolls, that were now sitting around a fire, mumbling something about cooking. He managed to reach the cage with the ponies soon enough, but of course it was secured with a lock. And his lock-picking skills, well...they were near non-existent.  
„How's it going, Bilbo?“ Kili asked over the headset.  
„It might take...a moment...“ Bilbo answered as he broke key after key, fumbling with the lock. One of the trolls came back, presumably to grab one of the ponies and Bilbo took a few steps back, so that the troll wouldn't spot him. When he had tried out „sneaking“ earlier he'd had to learn the hard way that mobs would still be able to spot him if he came too close to them.  
The troll turned around again and Bilbo saw the keys to the cage gleaming on it's belt. That was probably supposed to mean, that his own keys would not work – not that he had many left – and that he should get those keys... But HOW was he supposed to do that?!  
He faintly heard the others discussing something on TS as he slowly crept closer to the distracted troll. A red bar above his character showed him how much attention was on him. He was still way below 50%, so he hoped it would be okay. Mind you, this was only a game, but by now he was fairly sure that Kili and Fili were teenagers and a part of him just felt the need to be a good adult to them – translated as: he didn't want to be a loser in front of them, even though it was only logical that they'd be much better at the game. They had started playing a lot earlier, did it probably a lot more often and had the unchallengable learning-ability of children, while he himself barely used the computer at all if he could somehow avoid it.

As he was close enough, he right-clicked the keys to collect them, but of course a loading bar popped open that showed him the process of picking up the keys...agonizingly slowly. The troll started turning.  
„Oh shit...“ Bilbo made to move backwards but the troll had already spotted him and reached out with his gigantic blistered hand and grabbed him. Bilbo actually felt a bit disgust. And panic. „Oh Shit.“ He tried to move but his character was disabled.  
„What's going on, Bilbo?“ He heard Fili's voice. And then „Oh shit.“  
The troll with Bilbo in his hands started walking towards the fire again and had come back into Fili's and Kili's view.  
„We're gonna save you, Bilbo!“ Kili exclaimed. „Attack!“ He jumped right in front of the troll, sword in hand, and started hitting the troll – or rather thin air in front of the troll.

\---

After a few minutes of inspecting their surroundings, Thorin's look fell on the map. Something was off. He turned around.  
„Fili? Kili... where are you?“ he asked in their private chatroom. He usually had a second chatroom open just with his nephews because he really wanted to avoid the 'concerned uncle' jokes his friends would no doubt make. „I don't see you on the map.“  
„Just exploring a bit.“ Fili answered dutifully at the same time as Kili said „On a little side quest.“  
Thorin groaned, but a little grin split his face as he heard a dull thump of probably Fili's head hitting the table and a hissed „idiot!“  
Then he had another thought. „Where's the burglar....?“  
Silence on the line.  
He waited a moment.  
„Where. Is. The. Burglar?“  
„With us, he's save uncle!“ Kili said assuringly, as Thorin heard Fili in the background – probably in a chatroom with their burglar. „Oh shit!“  
„What are you doing?“

\---

„What are you doing?“, boomed Thorin's voice over the headset and both Fili and Kili felt themselves getting smaller by several inches.  
„That's all your fault!“ Fili whispered to Kili, even though there was no real need to. They were both huddled together in Kili's room, sitting on his bed, wrapped up in blankets with their respective notebooks in their laps.  
Kili just grinned, a tiny bit guiltily and shrugged. „Whatever, help me killing that troll!“  
„You know, that's an elite and there are three of those?“  
„Whatever!“ grinned Kili enthusiastically and charged back into the fight.  
„That's...Kili...“  
„Fili... you have to take things less seriously! You got that from Thorin. It's a game. A. GAME.“  
Fili didn't exactly know if he should feel flattered or insulted. Thorin was intimidating but probably the best uncle you could wish for and they knew he loved them to pieces.  
„Fine...“, he grumbled and charged in next to Kili. He took two hits and was almost down already. „We're so gonna die...“ Just as he thought he was going to get the final hit a cut-scene started. „The fuck..?  
„Woooah!“

\---

After the boys had hacked into the trolls for a few moments that felt like ages – since Bilbo himself was still in the iron grip of the monster and couldn't move – a cut scene started and the troll just turned away from the boys taking Bilbo to the fire with him.  
„Woooah!“ That was Kili on TS.  
„Whatever...“ Bilbo thought with a shrug and got up to get some tea. „It's just a game...“ but he was only halfway to the door as he already turned back around again to throw a tiny glance at the screen. Just in case something had changed.  
The cut-scene ended. Bilbo was just about to finally leave for the kittchen as earpiercing battlecries sounded through his headset ( - and who the fuck had invented bluetooth anyway?! A few years ago it wouldn't even have come to his mind to go to the kittchen with his headset on because the cables hadn't allowed it anyways!).  
„Attack!“ „Leave our burglar alone!“ „You're gonna pay for this!“ and different undiscernable growls made his ears ring. 

It was Thorin's – more or less – calm voice that made Bilbo saunter back to his computer instead of leaving for the kittchen.  
„You're in an open fight now, we're gonna join.“  
He (kinda) hoped Thorin was explaining it just for him, because all of the others obviously knew what they were doing. At least it seemed like they did from what he could see from his unfortunate place in the troll's hand.  
The dwarves started hitting the trolls with their weapons, jumping and bumping. At some point the troll let go off Bilbo, but it took only a few hits by the trolls and another short cut-scene until the dwarves were stripped of their clothes and weapons and put into sacks to wait for their turn as dessert. About half the crew (Bilbo internally apologized for not remembering all their names) were bound to a stick above a fire.  
Slowly, Bilbo got the feeling that maybe they were not supposed to win this. Maybe this was how this quest was supposed to go? It would make sense, at least since all 13 dwarves didn't make a difference to two.  
So, he did the only thing he could think off and pressed „distraction“ – a skill he had not yet tested – as soon as the cut-scene ended. A small new screen popped open. It was an in-game dialogue window of the troll saying something, with different options for him to answer. And to Bilbo's secret delight – it just made everything that much more realistic – the troll actually spoke his part. But for chosing his answer, Bilbo preferred to also read the part – just to be sure. He'd definitely not-read enough for one day.  
Like this he managed to engage the troll in the most ridiculous kind of conversation. He was a bit surprised that it actually worked but the troll seemed happy enought to indulge him and his questionworthy requests for appropriate skinning and seasoning. And to not take the ones with the worms. Actually they all had worms, all the dwarves were infected. He secretly felt a bit guilty about that, but it had seemed the better answer than „Eat them, but let me go!“  
Just when the troll finally seemed to get sick of him and his babbling – or most likely he had just chosen the wrong answer in the dialogue window – and grabbed his character again, he saw something light up on the mini-map. Gandalf was back!  
A crack sounded in the game and his whole monitor lit up. He had to blink several times, blinded by the bright light.  
The troll dropped him and under heavy moaning the trolls slowly turned to stone.  
Gandalf walked into view from behind a giant stone, that he'd obviously broken with his magic wand.  
Another screen popped up.

_Achievement: Beat the trolls!_

There was silence on the line. Noone said a word. And then...

„It seems I can't leave you guys alone for one minute!“ Gandalf growled disgruntled. „And you, Bilbo, I thought better of you.“  
Bilbo gasped, taken aback. „I can assure you Gandalf, this was hardly my fault!“  
Gandalf didn't answer to that but Bilbo heard him muttering under his breath and he was very sure, he heard the words „fools“ and „if it was not for me“ and for a moment he wasn't so sure anymore if Gandalf was angry that they'd gotten themselves into trouble or that they'd done it without him.

„There's a cave here!“ someone said on TS but Bilbo was not quite sure whose voice it was. He promised himself, he'd get better at it!  
„Something interesting?“  
„Just the normal loot-stuff... Woah, wait!“  
„There's lots of gold!“  
„Collect it all!“ That was Gloin...  
Soon everone was talking at the same time. The only voice Bilbo didn't hear was the one he'd admittedly reeeally like to hear. He moved around a bit, totally not looking for Thorin. Why would he?  
After all, this was only an online character that probably had not much to do with the real Thorin, no matter how nice his voice might sound. Still his heart did an excited extra beat as he spotted Thorin at the entrance of the aforementioned cave. He didn't think there would be anything in it for him, since his level was still way below the others', but nevertheless he ventured closer to the entrance. Just as Thorin disappeared in the dark opening and he was about to follow, Gandalf came out, effectively blocking his way.  
„Ah, Bilbo! Quite the hobbit, I was looking for!“  
„Thorin, come here, too!“  
„What is it, old man?“  
„Take this.“ Gandalf dropped a sword right in front of Thorin, who picked it up and eyed it suspiciously.  
„What, this is an elven sword!“  
„You can yield it, too!“  
„I am a dwarf.“ To Bilbo, who just stood there and listened, it sounded a lot like „I don't want to.“  
„Semantics.“  
„Gandalf!“  
„You'll never find a sword as good as that one!“  
It seemed Thorin had nothing to oppose Gandalf as there was silence on the line for a moment before Thorin put the sword away and ventured a few steps further.  
„And this is for you, Bilbo.“ Gandalf startled Bilbo out of his thoughts as he dropped another sword – more or less – in Bilbo's general direction. Bilbo picked it up.  
„Nameless Dagger“ it said. Even though it was no doubt longer than a dagger. But then again, it did in no way measure up to the elven swords.  
„What the fuck?“  
„Come on Bilbo, is that grumpy dwarf already affecting you?“  
Bilbo took a breath but – just as he was about to answer that no, of course not, why would he let himself be influenced by this unholily enticing voice? – Gandalf continued.  
„It is an elven sword, too. That has it's perks, you will see. Besides, you will need a weapon sooner or later.“ Bilbo could hear the unspoken „Look what happened with the trolls.“  
„The stats are great for a weapon on your level and it will warn you when Orcs are around.“  
Bilbo had tuned out halfway through Gandalf's speech as he was inspecting his new dagger... sword. Where the fuck did the old man see all that?!

He got distracted again when a guy appeared, he hadn't met yet an it seemed the others didn't know him either.  
Though Gandalf's delighted „Radagast!“ indicated that the old man very well did.  
Bilbo decided this was the right moment to finally go get his tea as the men started chatting about things he didn't understand anyway. So he put the headset to the side and stood up. He dared a short glance at the clock on the wall on his way to the kittchen and sighed. He should really go to bed for today.

A few minutes later, with his tea ready and maybe a little midnight snack at hand, prepared to just log off and leave it be for now, Bilbo went back to his study.  
Something was off. He put his headset back on.  
„Wargs!“ Someone called over TS.  
„It's a pack!“ Another one added.  
„Those are Orc scouts!“ Gandalf declared.  
„We have to fight!“  
„No, way!“ „I'm still down from the troll-fight. We didn't even have a chance to eat.“  
„Run, it is then!“  
„I could lead them on a false track!“ Radagast offered. „I'm not on your quest anyways“ he said and mounted his rabbit-sledge. In the blink of an eye he was gone.  
„This direction!“ Gandalf ordered, but of course Bilbo didn't see which. The others obviously did, because the whole group set into motion and started running.  
Bilbo followed.  
It took a moment until the absurdity of the situation hit him and another one until he'd taken the courage to voice it.  
„Can't we just...log off?“, he asked. As far as he had understood, mobs would continue their normal way when one logged off the game and you would not restart in the exact situation you'd logged off in, when you came back. And in case those Orcs where players – he was not sure actually and noone seemed inclined to explain without him asking – they probably wouldn't wait at that exact same spot until they would log in again and rather go their way.

„Where would be the fun in that, MasterB?“  
Bilbo was not sure, who'd said that. Kili or his older brother Fili, but both of them were laughing and for a moment, he thought he'd heard a quiet dark chuckle.  
Bilbo felt his cheeks heating up.  
He was so fucked...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Up in the next chapter: pining, pining and an unknowing meeting ensue ;D
> 
> Also: how many more nicknames for Bilbo will Kili make up?!


	6. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lot of blushing :D

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally the next chapter!  
> It took me ages to finish this, I'm sorry. I really wanted to get it right, the POV changes a few times within the chapter and I was never really satisfied with it. I wanted you to be able to read both sides without doubling too much...
> 
> Thanks for the comments and kudos <3 it really keeps me going :D
> 
> I hope you like it :)

Chapter 5

After Bilbo's request had been so blatantly ignored, they continued to run through open field and kill the occasional orc that happened to get a bit too close to them.  
Where were they going? Did they _know_ where they were going?  
There was nothing to be seen around that might have served as a hideout, and no neutral base was near either (the map showed that!). Mind you, Bilbo still thought it would be the best to log off.  
„Where are you leading us?“ That was Thorin. Well, at least Bilbo wasn't the only one who had no clue what was happening as they followed the old wizard's figure who seemed to move faster than anyone else.  
Gandalf didn't answer. Surprise.  
But at least he seemed to know where he was going as he was marching straight on to a big rock and... disappeared?!  
Did the old man really just bail out on them? No way...well, not too improbable but still!  
Suddenly horns sounded across the fields and warriors on horses swarmed the monitor starting to fight the orcs off. Elven warriors, that is!  
Thorin growled but rather than focussing on the Elves which were admittedly rather helpful in this situation, he made to examine the rock where Gandalf disappeared.  
„Come on, move it!“ Gandalf complained via headset and his head reappered in front of the rock.  
As Bilbo ventured closer he could see that there was a hole in front of the rock.  
„You know, you could have just told us where to go...“ One of his dwarven comrades complained, probably Bombur – Bilbo thought he recognized the voice.  
One after the other the dwarves and Bilbo jumped into the hole and down there was what seemed like a cave. Much more spaceous than Bilbo would have imagined.  
„There's a path...“ Dwalin announced who had ventured a few steps further and disappeared behind a corner for a moment. „Should we follow it?“  
„Of course, we follow it!“ came the instant reply.

They followed the path, one after the other because it was kinda tight and they kept barrelling into the walls if they tried to march through next to each other.  
When the path ended they were opposite a valley with incredibly detailed and beautiful buildings built into the side of a mountain. With waterfalls, gleaming sunlight and mystical music playing softly in the background. Bilbo felt his mouth drop open as he stared in amazement. He turned the camera around and around trying to get in as much of that place as possible. While the others where „Oooh“-ing and „Aah“-ing on TS he was absolutely speechless. Never had he expected an online game to show such beauty. Such a serene setting in calm colours and the tranquil atmoshpere of a safe haven that he usually only found in his books. Bilbo actually caught himself wishing this was a real place he could go...and maybe spend a vacation or two.  
The others seemed to be similarly at awe.  
„This is Imladris or Rivendell...We're safe here.“ Gandalf announced.  
„Elves...“ was the only thing Thorin grumbled to that and...logged off. It plopped on TS and gone he was.  
For real? Was he a child?  
Gandalf chuckled. „I think, this is enough for tonight, let us continute another time.“  
„Ah, about that!“ Bilbo managed to throw in before everyone was gone. „I don't think I'll be able to make it tomorrow night.“ He said.  
„My, why?“ Gandalf investigated. „Have you got a date, my dear?“  
„Eh, kinda...?“ Bilbo answered and felt himself blushing again. A date with his bed, yes. He didn't need to say this but he really, really needed to catch up on some well-deserved sleep.  
„Uuuh, have fun, Bilbo!“ Kili exclaimed. „Good night, guys!“  
„Yeah, good night.“ Bilbo agreed and finally shut down his computer. It was 2 am...

\---

It was 11 am and still way too early in the morning when Dis dropped her sons off at Thorin's.  
„They're yours for the weekend!“ she laughed, waved through the open car window and took off.  
Thorin just stood in his doorway in nothing but boxers and an old t-shirt and frankly couldn't care less.  
„She doesn't have to be so happy...“ Fili grumbled as he pushed past Thorin and went directly to the kittchen to start the coffeemaker.  
Kili just laughed and shoved his backpack into Thorin's arms. „That's how she is!“ He pushed past his uncle inside the building and closed the door behind them. „Is that coffee, Fili?“  
„Yes, it is, and you're getting none!“  
In the end, Thorin in his authority as uncle got the coffee, Fili could barely rescue a cup for himself.  
Kili resigned himself to cereal and rambling about school and homework and all the things he didn't want to do.  
By now Thorin knew him well enough to know that there was something he wanted and didn't dare ask or say. With Kili it was always like that. While his big brother was always straight to the point Kili tended to ramble and talk around and around what he actually wanted.  
Thorin pinched his nose bridge and sighed. „Kili...WHAT is it?“  
Silence. Kili looked at him with wide eyes and blushed. Fili snickered in his mug at the sight.

 

Two hours later Kili stood next to the front door already clad in his jacket and boots, bouncing on his heels. „Oh, come on, uncleeee!“  
„For god's sake, Kili!“, Thorin groaned. „It's a fucking bookstore...“ A+ parenting, thank goodness Dis was not here...  
„But it's importaaant! I reeeally need this book – ehem...“  
Fili scoffed at that. „Don't listen to him, uncle, he only wants to stalk the hot redhed...“  
Kili blushed furiously. „Don't talk about her like that!“  
„Without me, you wouldn't even know where she works!“ the blonde poked his brother in the ribs and hurriedly made for the chairs. „Just take your time, I'll look after the house!“ he said and disappeared upstairs into his and Kili's room – which was actually a guest room but with as much as they stayed over it was stuffed with their belongings and they had basically arranged it into their room.  
„Let's go, Kili...“ Thorin sighed as he took his coat from the wardrobe.  
They took the car, which was parked in front of the house since Thorin didn't have a garage or car port, because said bookstore which was obviously and sure as hell the only bookstore in the whole town that would have Kili's book that he so desperately needed right now on this day, was at the other side of the town. Thorin really wondered how he'd let himself be talked into that over an admittedly sparse breakfast – besides his obvious soft spot for the boys. He definitely could have imagined nicer ways to spend his saturday but who was he to deny his nephews a wish.

„This is...kinda far...“ Kili announced after thirty minutes of driving. Thorin also thought they should have been there by now but traffic was bound to be terrible on a saturday afternoon.  
„You chose this exact bookstore.“ Thorin eyed him for a moment from the corner of his eye before refocusing on the street. „I thought, you'd know, where it is.“  
„Well...yeah“ Kili's cheeks blushed a decent shade of pink. He did that a lot today – blushing that is. „I was just wondering, where Tauriel lives, if she works in a store so far way. I mean, we go to the same school, I didn't think it'd be that far...“ He mumbled almost incoherently as Thorin finally spotted the store on their right side. He parked the car a few metres down the street.   
The front of the store consisted almost completely of a large window. Books were displayed behind it and on the left side there was a wooden door with two big windows. On the inside hang an „OPEN“-sign inviting passerbys to enter and above the shop window hung a big wooden sign that read _„Baggins Bookstore & Antiquary“_ in curved artistic letters.

Thorin could feel how excited his nephew was when he stepped into the bookstore, positively vibrating. However his excitement was dimmed quickly when the teen spotted a man behind the counter who threw a small „Welcome!“ their way. Kili shot a quick glance at Thorin, then he sauntered off, acting interested, looking at books while in truth he was just looking for Tauriel.  
Thorin's gaze wandered back to the shop clerk at the counter who didn't seem to take any further notice of them. He was probably in his thirties and had a round, plump face and fluffly honey-coloured looks. It was hard to tell from the distance but he looked quite a bit shorter than Thorin and had an air of contentment around him. Thorin noticed himself staring and quickly turned away, mustering the bookshelves. No staring at cute booksellers! That was not what he was here for!

\----

Bilbo was silently working away behind the counter when the small bell above the door rang and two people came in. He shot them a smile and a „welcome“ and left them to their own devices for a moment. Most customers liked it more to be able to browse a bit unsupervised before being offered help. People who did not want to browse usually came straight up to him to ask for their wishes.  
Still he couldn't help but notice how unfairly goodlooking the man who had just entered his shop was. But he was with a boy who Bilbo guessed might be fifteen, sixteen at most and was probably his son. Too bad, the best ones were always straight.  
Both stood in the entrance for a moment a bit forlornly, then the boy sauntered off and left the man ( _His father? Please not his father!_ ) standing between the shelves alone. The man had sharp features, a royal nose and striking blue eyes. He sported a well trimmed beard and from what Bilbo could see without staring he definitely had to work out. The thick jacket the man wore sure obscured his body a bit but it was kind of tight and damn were those shoulders broad!  
Still Bilbo couldn't help but notice that Mr. Handsome looked a bit lost how he mustered the bookshelves without ever attempting to get near one.  
Being the good shopman that he was Bilbo waited for a moment ere he carefully approached the stranger. It was the polite thing to do, he was only thinking business here. It had nothing to do with these regal features or the fact that he seemed to be towering above Bilbo by two heads.  
„Excuse me, sir.“ Bilbo said and the stranger startled.

\---

„Excuse me, sir.“ said a voice beside him as Thorin mustered the bookshelves sceptically. He nearly jumped out of his skin. He hadn't noticed Bilbo approaching at all.  
„Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you.“  
„No...no, it's quite alright, I was just...lost there for a moment.“  
„I was wondering if I could help you.“   
_Yes yes you can_ , Thorin's inside screamed but he kept his composure and unfortunately his default glare.  
„With the books.“ The curly haired man elaborated. „Do you search for something specific?“

\---

As it turned out neither Tauriel nor the book were there. Kili groaned frustrated as he roamed around the store. „Thoriiin!“ he called from behind a bookshelve. „It's not here!“  
Thorin looked in the direction Kili's voice had come from for a moment before he turned back to the cute guy in front of him.   
„Actually, we search for a book“, he said which earnt him a chuckle.  
„You don't say“, cute guy replied with a sweet smile and Thorin desperately hoped he didn't blush. He felt like he was blushing...  
But the shop clerk helped him out of his misery by asking: „So, which book is it?“  
„Uh, I think, I have a note somewhere...“ Thorin searched around his pockets until he found the crumpled piece of paper and handed it to the smaller man who took it to unfold it.  
„We don't have that in store, I'm sorry. But I could order it for you“, the cute guy offered almost immediately.  
„Are you sure? Don't you...need to look in the storage or so?“ Thorin asked unsure. Cute guy just raised an eyebrow and looked at him. Great, NOW he was blushing. „Sorry“, he mumbled and cute guy smiled. Noting that he couldn't keep calling the man 'cute guy' in his head if he didn't plan on embarassing himself sooner or later, Thorin peaked a glance at the name tag on the man's chest. 'Baggins' it said and Thorin realized 'cute guy' might possibly be the shop owner. Mr. Baggins it was then.  
„So, should I order it for you?“  
„Yes, please.“ Thorin answered.  
„Alright, follow me, please“, Mr. Baggins said and went back to his counter, Thorin short on his trail. After a few clicks, the smaller man looked up. „What name should I put in?“ he asked. Thorin stared for a moment, before he answered. „Durin, please.“   
Mr. Baggins typed again, then said: „All done. It should be here Tuesday, latest Wednesday.“  
„Great.“ Thorin felt a small smile tug at his lips. He looked around searching for Kili. „Will Tauriel be in then?“, he asked.  
„Oh, do you know her?“ Cute- Mr. Baggins looked at him surprised.  
„Eh, no.“ A pause. „...That came out wrong... My nephew wanted to meet her, they..eh...know each other...“ Thorin finished lamely.  
The sweet guy blinked at him owlishly, then smiled again. „Well then...I advise you'd come on Wednesday“, he offered with a wink. Thorin thought his heart might stop. Maybe he should go see a doctor. After all, he was in that age now where you had to start being careful.  
„Thank you“, he said and turned around to the back of the shop. „Kili!“ he called. „We're leaving.“  
A moment later Kili appeared between the bookshelves. He looked at Thorin, then at the shop clerk and at Thorin again. He made a face as he walked past them.  
„See you on Wednesday“, Mr. Baggins smiled when Thorin turned to leave.  
„Yes, see you!“  
„Ugh, stop flirting, uncle...so gross!“ Kili exclaimed as they left the shop and Thorin clapped him up the head. „Shut up.“ „Ouch, Thorin! That hurt!“

\---

Bilbo really didn't mean to startle Mister Tall-Dark-and-Handsome.  
„I was wondering, if I could help you“, he offered but was only met with a confused glare. „With the books...“ he elaborated and suddenly felt incredibly selfconcious under the gaze of the handsome stranger. „Do you search for something specific?“ he tried again but had to admit to himself that it didn't really look like it. The guy didn't even get close to the shelves. As out of place as he seemed he actually didn't look like a book-person at all. Usually that would be a no-no for Bilbo, a person who couldn't appreciate the value of a good book, unbelievable. But for this fine specimen here he could definitely make an exception...

„Thorin! It's not here!“ a voice called from the back of the shop and Mr. Tall-Dark-and-Handsome turned around. Bilbo felt his heart drop to his feet. Thorin? Was that a common name? He had never heard it before until a week prior. And that voice was kind of familiar after all. Could it be? What were the odds? Considering they both knew Gandalf it probably wasn't too far off that they might be living in the same town.  
„Actually, we search for a book.“ Thorin said and suddenly Bilbo thought he recognized the deep voice from their online sessions and the slightly stilted way of speaking and he chuckled a bit. How could he not notice that before?  
„You don't say!“, he smiled at Thorin. Keep it professional, Bilbo! „So, which book is it?“  
The tall man started searching for a note somewhere in his pockets and Bilbo couldn't help his gaze also traveling down. Nice chest, really...and oh! Nice bottom also... His eyes flew up as Thorin offered him the crumbled note. He took it and pretended to read it but really, he was just trying not to blush. Without actually knowing what book they were talking about he just claimed he didn't have it in store and offered to order it. The other man seemed surprised and wanted to know if he didn't have to look for it first but Bilbo just raised an eyebrow at him which did the job and earned him an adorable blush and a „sorry“. 

Bilbo went back to the counter to 'order' the book trying to look professional and glanced at the note, finally reading it. Should he tell Thorin? Or just maybe casually introduce himself? Bilbo wasn't a name too common either, so maybe Thorin would recognize him then? What if he was wrong and this was a different Thorin? Would he think Bilbo was hitting on him? Well, he would be, but still...  
While going through the motions of ordering the book, Bilbo kept glanzing at Thorin.  
Maybe it really was just a coincidence? He had do admit that he'd imagined Online-Thorin to be quite handsome. He sure as hell had a nice voice, but this...this was just plain unfair! Besides, this Thorin here was polite and kind of sweet in a shy way. No way this was the same person.  
„All done“, Bilbo said after he entered the name. „It should be here Tuesday, latest Wednesday.“  
„Great.“ Thorin answered and was that a smile? Oh, yes, that definitely was a smile! Bilbo's heart almost skipped a beat and he felt heat rising to his cheeks. Good that this man didn't smile more often, it should be illegal.  
„Will Tauriel be in then?“, Thorin added.  
Surprised at the mention of his employee Bilbo asked: „Oh, do you know her?“ He felt a memory tingling at the back of his mind but he couldn't quite grasp it.  
„Eh, no.“ Thorin said and paused awkwardly „...That came out wrong... My nephew wanted to meet her, they..eh...know each other...“  
Bilbo blinked at him, trying to process. Here was his chance, now or never!   
„Well then...I advise you'd come on Wednesday“, he offered with a small wink. Awkward...oh god, why did he do that? Why? But thankfully Thorin didn't say anything to his embarrassement and just thanked him and turned around to call „Kili! We're leaving!“  
And that's when everything clicked into place. 'I know someone whose name is Fili. I think, he has a brother named Kili' Tauriel had said with a blush. Kili was in his store looking for Tauriel! With his uncle, Thorin. No way in hell was this a coincidence.  
Only the blink of an eye later the boy, Kili, appeared between the bookshelves. He looked at them and made a face as he walked past them. He couldn't have recognized Bilbo, could he? What if he told his uncle? Would that be strange? Saying something now would be odd, too...  
In his panic Bilbo settled on „See you on Wednesday“ and tried to smile a decent smile.   
He really hoped Thorin would come back on Wednesday. Maybe he'd know what to do about the situation until then.  
„Yes, see you!“ Thorin answered and shooed his nephew out of the store.  
Kili said something Bilbo couldn't hear anymore but it earned the boy a slap on the back of his head and he hurried out of the store in front of his uncle.  
Bilbo sighed. Why did that man have to be such an ass online? He seemed quite likable now, a bit awkward maybe.   
God, was Bilbo glad they were not playing today...

\---

Kili pouted almost the whole car-ride home.  
„That's so unfair...“ he grumbled. „Even Mr. Bilbo has a date! Even YOU flirted!“, the teen exclaimed affronted. Thorin hit the breaks. Thankfully they were almost home and the road was basically empty with noone behind them.  
„What?“ he asked and cleared his throat awkwardly. Kili stared at him a bit shocked by the strong reaction but Thorin hit the gas again and generally acted as if nothing had happened. That's where his beard was indeed an advantage, it made it a lot harder to see him blush (and he didn't like to admit it, but he kind of was a blusher...).  
„That was SO obvious, uncle! And Mr. Bilbo told us yesterday. That's why we can't continue the quest tonight.“ Kili drawled and Thorin frowned a bit, he hadn't known that. Too bad his nephew knew him well enough to notice.  
„You would've known had you not acted soo childish yesterday!“ he preened, bad mood completely forgotten.  
„Whatever...“ Thorin grumbled. What did he care anyway? It was none of his business if the guy rather went on a date than continue their quest with them. And he resolutely ignored the small voice in his mind that kept telling him it was actually the reasonable thing to do.  
He shooed the thoughts away with the memory of a sweet smile and honey-blond locks. Maybe he really could be the one to bring Kili to the bookstore again next time when he was going to collect his book – and hopefully finally meet that girl!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: the quest continues :)
> 
> I hope, it won't take me this long again!


End file.
